Until recently, the most visible competition between the University of Arizona and Arizona State University has been on the football field and the basketball court.
Today, however, the schools are going head-to-head in the Valley of the Sun to capitalize on the growing market for MBAs. And the competition is about to get fiercer.
In a business park less than 30 minutes from ASU's W.P. Carey School of Business, the UA's Eller College of Management this month opened a permanent campus in the Valley.
The Eller College of Management, Scottsdale Campus, offers an executive MBA bringing in businessmen and businesswomen, some from out of state, on Fridays and Saturdays every other week. That program began last year, with classes meeting at a Scottsdale hotel.
In January, Eller's Scottsdale campus will launch a part-time evening MBA program for Valley professionals.
People are also reading…
"The Phoenix area is the economic center of the state and the Southwest region," said Linda Herrick, a spokeswoman for the Eller College of Management. "We need to have a presence there, and ... there is room for another institution."
Part-time MBA programs are seeing increased demand nationally, and that trend is expected to continue, according to the Graduate Management Admissions Council, a nonprofit association of business schools. About two-thirds of part-time and executive MBA programs surveyed received more applications this year than in 2006.
Two key differences between the Eller and W.P. Carey programs are price and length.
Eller's executive MBA lasts about 14 months and costs about $50,000; W.P. Carey's lasts 22 months and costs about $65,000. Eller's evening MBA program lasts 18 months and costs about $36,000, while W.P. Carey offers 18- and 21-month tracks costing about $40,000.
"I believe that Carey has an excellent program as well," Eller's Herrick said. "But we're just filling in another niche."
The W.P. Carey School contends that those focusing on length and price should consider another factor: quality.
"You get what you pay for," said Gerry Keim, associate dean and director of the W.P. Carey School's executive MBA program.
"We are very focused on very high-quality MBA," Keim said. "Part of the reason it's expensive is to add the best faculty."
While Eller doesn't know how many evening MBA students it will start with here, W.P. Carey's evening program has 586 students. W.P. Carey's executive MBA program has 83 students, while there are 129 total executive MBA students at Eller's Scottsdale and Tucson campuses.
ASU and the UA also compete in the Valley with private schools offering MBA programs for working professionals, including the University of Phoenix, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Ottawa University and Grand Canyon University.
Mark Reinhard, an independent management consultant in Scottsdale, said he was attracted to Eller's executive MBA program here by the ability to finish in 14 months. He has two months to go.
"The program is accelerated in the workload, but you work hard and you get it over with quicker," Reinhard said.
For J.P. Benedict, a Phoenix real estate agent, selecting the Eller executive MBA had everything to do with school spirit. He was UA student body president in 2003-4.
"I chose Eller because of my ties to U of A; it has been part of my family history," Benedict said.
But Shanna Pickel, a finance manager who travels here from Denver, has no problem being an ASU graduate getting an MBA from UA. She wants another school's perspective on business.
"It looks good on your résumé˚ and it shows that you are more diverse," Pickel said.
What they offer
A quick look at competing MBA offerings in the Phoenix area by the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management and Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business:
MBA
Duration: Eller, 14 months; W.P. Carey, 22 months.
Cost: Eller, about $50,000; W.P. Carey, about $65,000.
Evening MBA
Duration: Eller, 18 months; W.P. Carey, 18- and 21-month tracks.
Cost: Eller, about $36,000; W.P. Carey, about $40,000.